I am happy to announce that the ACL Executive Committee has approved the creation of an ACL Fellows program, which recognizes ACL members whose contributions to the field have been most extraordinary. To be named a Fellow, a candidate must have been a member of the ACL for the past three consecutive years and be nominated by a current ACL member.

Seventeen ACL members are among the founding group of Fellows. Each of these 2011 Fellows has been a major force in computational linguistics, and each has been a member of ACL for the last three years. Please see the list below and congratulate them!

A small group of new Fellows will be announced each year. If you would like to nominate a candidate, please make your nomination at http://www.aclweb.org/portal/nominations. If you are unsure about a candidate's eligibility, please send a query to acl@aclweb.org. A nominator must provide a comprehensive case for the candidate and solicit two additional recommendations. The nominator should direct the recommenders to fill out recommendation forms (ACL will not contact individual recommenders or solicit letters). All forms submitted by October 1 of a given year will be considered by the ACL nominating committee, and submitted forms will be kept confidential.